THE KING AND QUEEN IN THE CITY
OPENING OF THE NEW CENTRAL CRIMINAL COURT
The ceremony, long looked forward to, of opening the new building of the Central Criminal Court was performed yesterday by the King. The building, it will be remembered, supersedes that familiarly known as the Old Bailey, and stands upon the site of what was once the frowning and fortress-like structure of the famous Newgate Prison.
As the chief criminal Court in the country and one with a long and remarkable history, a special interest at all times attaches to the Old Bailey, but the proceedings of yesterday, graced as they were by the presence of the King and Queen, possessed a significance which it would be difficult to overrate. "The Sovereign," says Blackstone, in his Commentaries, "is considered in domestic affairs as the fountain of justice and general conservator of the peace of the Kingdom," and it was by the Sovereign, in the presence of some of the highest functionaries in the land, that the new building was opened and dedicated to its high and solemn purpose.
Nothing, in a word, could surpass the dignity and stateliness of the ceremonial which attended the inauguration of the new Central Criminal Court, where, in the King's name, justice will henceforth be administered.
THE SCENE IN THE STREETS.
Soon after 10 o'clock sightseers began to line the edge of the pavement along the route, especially outside the Law Courts, where the ceremony of the meeting of the Lord Mayor and the King was to take place later on. By 11.30 the crowd was dense, and many of those who were unable to take up a position from which they could see the procession were obliged to go up into Holborn and admire from a distance the empty carriages and the troops. Outside the entrance to the Central Criminal Court a large marquee had been erected, which contained tiers of seats, which were filled early by those who had tickets. This arrangement was very convenient for its privileged occupants but somewhat obscured the view for the numbers of persons watching from neighbouring houses and from farther up the hill towards St. Sepulchre's Church.
From 11 o'clock onwards there was a constant stream of arrivals at the Court and about half-past 11 the Judges arrived in carriages. In the meantime, the troops, under the command of Colonel W. P. Pulteney, C.B., D.S.O., had taken up their positions. The 2nd Battalion Scots Guards lined the route from Ludgate Circus to Fleet Lane, and the Royal Horse Guards provided cavalry posts at Ludgate Circus, across Ludgate Hill, and in Holborn. A guard of honour of 100 rank and file, with King's colour and band, was furnished by the Honourable Artillery Company, whose connection with the City goes on through the centuries undisturbed by Secretaries for War; this was under the command of Captain E. A. Lankester.
The programme, which has already been published in The Times, was punctually observed. After passing for the whole way between two dense crowds of loudly cheering spectators, the King arrived at Temple Bar about ten minutes to 12. Here the Lord Mayor, who was accompanied by the Sheriffs and the Remembrancer, presented, according to custom, the Pearl Sword; and then the procession reformed, the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs in their carriages preceding their Majesties to the new building. One could hear their coming long before the City Marshal, who headed the procession, turned from Ludgate Hill into Old Bailey.
Standing by the marquee outside the entrance to the Central Criminal Court, one could not but recall the wonderful description in "Barnaby Rudge" of the throng which gathered here when the Gordon rioters were hanged. The circumstances have altered more than the scene; the neighbourhood has suffered fewer changes than have many, nor has it only, comparatively speaking, been cleaned up and opened out. St. Sepulchre's clock still tells its message to 'the passer-by, but it is no longer the dread message of a death in public degradation; and the white walls of the new building, already mellowing with time, stand out clear as an emblem of the new order compared with the grim black of the past and of Newgate. Of the thousands who gathered yesterday to see their King and Queen, numbers stood and watched from windows in the place where so many of the morbid, the curious, and the dissolute have in bygone days waited to gratify their desire for sensation. The nosegay which used to be given to the traveler to Tyburn from the steps of the church was replaced by gay decorations of flowers and bunting. To those who had a few pennies to spare, all sorts of literature were offered by hawkers, recalling the history of Newgate and the Old Bailey; not a cheerful history that "much of Madness, and more of Sin, and Horror the soul of the Plot."
On arriving at the Central Criminal Court, the Lord Mayor at once dismounted and, carrying the Sword, met their Majesties on the steps. There was a brief interval during which the King and Queen spoke to the Sheriffs and then the procession moved into the building. The escort of the 2nd Life Guards moved up, with the dress carriages of the Royal procession and the carriages of the City officials, towards Newgate Street and Holborn, where there was room to turn round and wait for the end of the ceremony.
Outside the City the decorations along the route which was the Mall, Strand, Fleet Street, Ludgate Hill and Old Bailey, were of an unofficial kind, but at Temple Bar there began a systematic and very effective scheme. The pedestal of the griffin was ornamented with daffodils, hyacinths, and palms in pots, and the greetings of the City were displayed on a large blue banner hung across the road and flanked by two banners bearing the initials E. and A.
Fleet Street was hung with festoons of flags and flowers and Ludgate Circus was gay with flowers, real and artificial, and with wreaths of flowers hung from a device of welcome in the centre to white pillars erected on the circumference of the Circus. Ludgate Hill, however, showed a decorative scheme which was at once novel, effective, and interesting. Intermingled with the flags hung across the road were banners bearing the names of past Recorders, the names and dates; in order up the hill from the railway bridge were: Sir Forrest Fulton, 1900; the Right Hon. Sir Charles Hall, 1892; Sir Thomas Chambers, 1878; the Right Hon. Russell Gurney, 1856; the Right Hon. J. A. Stuart Wortley, 1850; the Hon. C. Ewan Law, 1833; and Newman Knowlys, 1822.
At the turn into Old Bailey the scheme once more became floral and in the narrow street from which the general public had to be excluded, the wreaths of gaily coloured paper flowers showed up well in spite of the overcast sky.
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